Charleston's Graveyard Specialist

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Ruth M. Miller: Charlestons very own graveyard specialist! Sounds pretty cool, maybe a little creepy, right? Well not to this published author. Ruth M. Miller has published multiple books on various graveyards in Charleston, SC. In my "Beyond the Grave" FYSS class, I had the privilege to hear Ruth Miller speak to my class last Monday, September 16th. She shared with us how she became interested  in studying and acquiring more information about the local graveyards. Ruth Miller enjoyed touring churches and popular places in Charleston and surrounding areas and during one tour she got off the tour bus, which was full of morticians, and instead of following her inside the church the morticians went straight to the graveyards. The other tourists began to tell her stories and random interesting facts that she had not thought of before and this is when she began her love and interest in graveyards. 

Graveyards are part of every towns history and as Ruth Miller said: "The graveyards tell us a lot, they tell us about history, they tell us about perspective, about plants... graveyards are important for explanations about all these different roots". Graveyards give people insight about what a town has been through along with cultural differences. Most graveyards have different symbols on their tombstones representing different cultural or religious beliefs, and even some graveyards are located next to their respected church. 

Being on the coast, Charleston is prone to many water related disasters, which can unfortunately cause historic buildings and landmarks to deteriorate, but fortunately each disaster can be the beginning of a new plant species. Miller said: "People have long forgotten that the plants out there have told them what happened, that something special had happened once upon a time". 

Miller also explained to the class about how Charleston was the richest and most populated city at one point in time, however after the North won the Civil War history books does not recognize  Charleston as one of the wealthiest cities. Miller said "What you see in a graveyard is important but what you don't see is also important", for example Charleston was a city where the population was at least 70% African American but there are no graveyards to represent them, basically wiping them from Charleston's history. Ruth Miller emphasized the point that a graveyard is more than just a place with tombstones representing and remembering people but it is much more than that, a graveyard has more history and has more secrets than one would originally think.